Internet Protocol (IP) networks of today use switches and routers to forward packets to optical networks for transport. Currently, IP networks permit the generation of point-to-point links between routers over an optical network. Each point-to-point link passing through the optical network logically connects two optical network elements: one network element is where packet traffic enters the optical network and the other network element is where the packet traffic leaves the optical network. Because routing and switching usually occur outside of the optical network, each network element requires a physical interface to the IP network for each point-to-point link. For a network element participating in a plurality of point-to-point links, such as a hub, the number of physical interfaces needed by the network element adds to its expense and complexity.
Moreover, having multiple physical interfaces is potentially wasteful of bandwidth. For example, if a physical interface supports a Gigabit Ethernet service, and such traffic, being bursty in general, does not utilize the available bandwidth of the physical interface, not only is the bandwidth underutilized by the Gigabit Ethernet service, but also the unused bandwidth is unavailable to other services. This inefficiency exacerbates when there are multiple underutilized physical interfaces. There is, therefore, a need for a system and method that can switch or route IP traffic over an optical network without the inefficiencies of current implementations.